Facebook, Google Launch Data Portability Programs to All — Google and Facebook separately announced the general availability of their respective data portability programs on Thursday. — Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect are generally designed to extend social-networking capabilities broadly across the Web.

Facebook Across the Web — Over the summer we announced an extension of Facebook Platform called Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect makes it easier for you to take your online identity with you all over the Web, share what you do online with your friends and stay updated on what they're doing.

Google Friend Connect: now available — We're pleased to share that Google Friend Connect is now available in beta to any webmaster looking to add a “dash of social” to his or her site. This service lets webmasters add social features to their sites by simply copying and pasting a few snippets of code …

Google Friend Connect Now Open To All Websites — Update: Facebook just opened up FB Connect as well in a self-serve fashion. It's mano-a-mano. — The battle over who will control access to your online identity is heating up. In the wake of more and more partners finally starting …

From Apple to RIM, With Love — Look, I'll just cut to the chase, because sites like Boy Genius Report, Engadget and Gizmodo have all the details covered in gory detail. — Bottom line: the BlackBerry Storm isn't all that great. And this is coming from someone who had a bunch of BlackBerries …

Square is the new round. — On the Reader team, we know that the old adage “change is good” isn't always true. Sometimes, change is just change. In this case, we hope that these decisions both improve your Reader experience today, and pave the way for additional improvements down the line.

Facebook cancels employee stock sale — So much for Silicon Valley's latest get-rich-quick scheme. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cancelled a plan to let employees cash out their shares early. — In August, before the markets started to melt down and with Facebook worth $15 billion on paper …

Does Amazon's iPhone app go too far? — Now that the official Amazon Mobile iPhone app is here, it's easier than every to check prices from anywhere, even while shopping in retail stores. And the company's clever new “Amazon Remembers” service will use humans to identify product pics snapped …

Apple to sell a $99 4GB iPhone at Walmart? — We just got a tip that in addition to the iPhone 3G actually making its way to Walmart, as we exclusively told you, there will be a 4GB model priced at $99 with a 2-year agreement. We're not putting our stamp of approval behind this one just yet …

Going More Mobile — Over the last year we've seen an explosion of mobile devices uploading to and browsing Flickr. It's rapidly becoming the norm for our members to use a camera phone to share their immediate world with others, and a mobile browser to keep track of friends and family.

boxee <3 Netflix — when we planned the Dec 4th release we had minor changes in mind, mainly bug-fixes.... but we were undisciplined and immature.. and it turned from a minor release into a big one.. — we could not ignore the number of people asking for Netflix on boxee.. so we called …

Apple, RIM winners in shrinking smartphone market — Like a commercial break that strikes right when the made-for-TV movie is just getting interesting, a new study says that worldwide smartphone growth reached its lowest rate during the third quarter of 2008.

More big names downsizing, pulling out of Macworld Expo — A faltering global economy is expected to take its toll on trade shows next year and January's Macworld will be no exception, with more big names planning to downsize their presence or pulling out altogether, AppleInsider has learned.